Everett (1908-1939) was our grandfather’s brother; Hill Farmstead Brewery rests upon the land that was once home to him and his 13 siblings. In his honor, this Porter is crafted from American malted barley, English and German roasted malts, American hops, our ale yeast, and water from our well. It is unfiltered and naturally carbonated. Decadent in its depth, with a complex backbone of chocolate, coffee, and malty sweetness, this is the ale that I dream to have shared with Everett.

Reviews by TheBrewo:

This brew was poured from a growler into Hill Farmstead stemware, showing the color of burnt molasses. It put up a one and a half finger head of big coffee colored bubbles, showing nice retention. Creamy rings of lacing were left around the glass as it dissipated at a slower pace. No haze or sediment was appreciated, and carbonation appeared to be active. The nose was heavy, with cloying coffee and chocolate malt melt and residual dextrins, deep black and brown malt roastiness, floral hop freshness, ash, brown sugars, mineral, glassy metallics, and warming booze. Our first impression was that this was a serious porter, with fantastic sweetness met by leafiness, sourness, and dark roast of grain. As we sipped, the buds were flooded with notes of thick roast, caramel, bittered chocolate, and caramel roastiness, soy sauce salts, green grassy and herbal hops, mineral water, baker’s yeast, vanilla icing sweetness, plum skins, and milk chocolate oiliness. The middle came to a peak with more metallics, musk and funk of grain and straw, heavy dark chocolate bitterness, molasses sweetness, devil’s food cake breadiness, white sugar, gritty yeast, and phenolic medicinals. The ending wash came with even greater sweetness of toffee and caramel candies, bittered waxiness, lactic cream, mineral, metallic coffee bean bite, vanilla extract, stark booziness, buttery warmth, brown sugar toast, tobacco leafiness, and burnt floral hops. The aftertaste breathed of salty seawater, vegetals, blackboard chalkiness, baker’s yeast bite, coffee and richly toffee malts, cooked brown sugars, earthy and floral hop balance, wild roasty sweetness, tobacco smokiness, cakey breadiness, wheat rind, distant lemon zest, and brassy metallics. The body was full, and the carbonation was medium. Each sip gave wonderful sip, smack, slurp, cream, and froth. The finishing pop was crisp, and the corners of the mouth were left sticky and taken care of. The mouth was left thickly coated and equally as sticky, with eventual dry astringency across the hard palate. The abv was appropriate, and the beer sipped excellently.

Overall, what we enjoyed most about this beer was its aroma and its flavoring. The nose gives roasty malts and robustness off the bat, with the taste following suite wonderfully. The latter actually was much more rich than expected, with toffees and caramels giving more thickness, sweetness, and flavor across the taste. This was helped along by a silky smooth feel that left the mouth coated, but also asking for more. The sip was smooth, and everything was really inviting about this beer, making it second in the line of Hill Farmstead beers that we’ve been impressed with. Fantastic for the style, deep, and contemplative. (2,745 characters)

More User Reviews:

A - Dark brown-black body, opaque, with a full dark tan head. Fades quickly to thin coating head. Decent lacing, full and robust. All told, this is what I want my beer to look like.

S - A full, complex roast nose, with big chocolate and coffee elements, coupling with a strong molasses bread note. This just makes me want to go in for a drink.

T - Delivering on the nose, with an open of strong roasted malts, full of coffee and bread, leading to a middle with slightly more acidity and smoke and savory highlights, closing with a solid bitter finish that clears the flavors perfectly.

M - Full, with a nice weight on the tongue that indicates the beers presence, coupled with decent carbonation to keep the fullness from becoming cloying. No real drying on the close. Incredibly well balanced.

O - I have finally met a 5.0 beer. A beer that lines up perfectly with the expectations I have for a porter, and delivers both precise balance and nuanced flavor notes that make drinking both extraordinarily rewarding and a genuine pleasure. Brewers would do well to take note of the beauty, simplicity and depth this beer achieves. Illustration no. 1 that all beers do not have to take it to 11. (1,204 characters)

Pours into an HF chalice, dark with a chocolate brown head. What you expect from a porter.

Smells charred and chocolately. Dark chocolate, especially, with nodes of coffee that don't taste like they're from coffee so much as they're coffee-like hints you'd pick up from roasted grain. One of the most pleasantly intense bitter aromas I've ever come across.

Tastes like it smells only more variegated. Milk chocolate and light roast coffee up front, dark roasted espresso near the middle, dark chocolate at the back. Intense and wonderful throughout without ever becoming unbalance to too strong.

This is turning out to be the year of the porter for me. On the sweet side is Tributary's otherworldly Porter, and toward the bitter end is Everett. It might not be trendy enough to rank among HF's more desirable beers, but Everett is as good as they come. (886 characters)